Swimming Lessons

I am so sad to say that at the beginning of the summer I had 4 non-independent swimmers! Weston and Davin both took swimming lessons years ago in Kearns, but since then nothing. It was time. I decided to bypass the five sessions of rec center group lessons it would take to get them to be independent and went with private lessons. We used O'Neal Aquatics. They are in the process of building their own warehouse pool, but for this summer they taught lessons in a private residence in Cedar Hills, about a 20 minute drive straight East from us. 

Weston did great and progressed really quickly through back floating, deep water safety, and on to learning strokes. He had fun and was proud of being able to do it quickly. I had expected him to pick it up fast. By the end of his 8 private lessons he could swim freestyle and backstroke across the long way of the pool. One independent. Check.

Davin took awhile to feel comfortable in the water. The first few lessons he cried a lot. I finally bribed him to be brave and calm and get his 60 second back float. He was so proud of himself when he finally got there. We went out to eat at McDonald's that day to celebrate! Once he got his back float he was much happier about the whole process and did great learning deep water safety and strokes. He has two more lessons left and is getting better at swimming all the way across the pool. I wouldn't feel comfortable with him in the pool by himself, but he is much more independent.

Talia. What can I say? She has been SO stubborn about the whole thing. When she's not learning anything she's fine and loves blowing bubbles and picking up rings off the steps, but ask her to float on her back or jump in the pool? Not so much. She has cried and screamed through most of her lessons. She has floated on her back by herself for 20 seconds, but she is far from independent in the water. I guess there's always next summer and she's only three.

Weston finished up his 8 lessons the Friday before school started, but I added another two weeks of lessons for Talia and Davin hoping they could progress a little further while it still feels summery. I have been really happy with the results of the O'Neal program. I got lessons on a 4th of July sale, so it wasn't too terribly expensive. I paid $10 per 20 minute private lesson. It still adds up pretty fast with three kids in lessons. My goal is to take the kids to the indoor rec center pool at least once a month through the winter so they don't forget everything they learned this summer.

Kearns BBQ

We had so much fun getting together with our Kearns family for a BBQ a couple of weeks ago. We don't get together nearly often enough, but when we do it's always good to catch up and laugh. :) The Wilson's hosted this summer's bbq. The kids ran in the sprinklers and filled up buckets and played with the chickens. We ate good food and talked. 

That morning I sliced up a watermelon to take with us to the bbq and gave the kids each a big slice. They loved eating it by the slice and made a big juicy mess.

It was an exciting food day for Beckett. He got his first slice of watermelon to eat by himself in the morning and then that night he got his first ice cream cone to eat by himself. He loved it so much. Fun treat Bayles'! I'm glad that we are able to party!

Puddle Jumping

After a very dry summer we finally had a couple of weeks where we had thunderstorms almost every afternoon. There were a few days of major downpour. One day we were watching the storm from the garage and the kids asked if they could go out and play in it. I figured we didn't have to go anywhere so why not? They had a blast, but got cold after only 30 minutes. It was pretty fun watching them go crazy in the rain. Beckett preferred to stay dry and watch.

Talia deciding if she wants to play in the rain or not. Hmm.

Later that night there were more silly kid antics. I tell you these guys crack me up. Beckett is learning to ham it up for the camera so when I'm taking pictures he will stand right in front of me and smile. I love that I captured his laughing face. Talia has a little bit of hero worship for her big brother Weston. It's mostly cute and he's a good sport about it. I hope he always remembers to show her love and kindness.

Friends at the Farm

We had a fun, impromptu outing to the farm on Monday morning after Mom left. I had just finished working out when my old neighbor, Gwen, texted me that they were going to the farm and could we join them? I figured I was already gross so sure! ;) Gwen ended up grabbing a few extra neighbor kids and we had quite a crew! I think there were 11 kids! It was a total blast. Everyone got along. There were all these cute baby animals like chicks, baby goats, a tiny adorable foal, calves, piglets, etc. The kids all did two pony rides, a wagon ride, fed the animals and played in the farm room. So glad we went! We sure miss the Ostermiller's!

Meeting Wilson

The day after Snowbird Mom came back to our house for one last sleepover before she headed back to CA. She had spent a couple of days up in Ogden with Aunt Barbara and then had met up with an old friend for lunch. Her friend dropped her off at my house that afternoon. Mel came over a little bit after that to hang with us and let the kids meet baby Wilson. They were super excited to hold him. They all did great and love their new cousin. 

Beckett has been super into babies recently, which is great since we have lots of new baby cousins. He was so funny when he saw Wilson. He was yelling gibberish and was so excited to see him. He was soft though and would touch Wilson with just his index finger. He gave him kisses too. Pretty adorable.

Mel hung all afternoon until she had to leave to pick up Brad. That night Mom and I got to work on my Snowball family quilt squares. My Snowball cousins and aunts are putting together a quilt. We are each making 18 of a quilt square then we will get one of everyone's squares to make our own family quilt. I'm super excited to put it together, but I was really nervous about the actual sewing part since I haven't used my sewing machine in about 10 years and didn't know how to thread it or anything. I'm so glad Mom got me started. I actually had a lot of fun doing almost the entire thing by myself. Once I got it figured out it went pretty fast. Mom and I set up shop in the basement and sewed and watched Pride and Prejudice until pretty late.

I had to take Mom to the airport in the morning, but I ended up getting all of my quilt squares done that weekend. It was fun having Mom in and out for a couple weeks while she helped with Baby Wilson and ended up helping with my kids too (when we went to Vegas). She's pretty much the best. :) It wasn't too sad saying goodbye because I knew we would get to play again in just a few weeks at our Tahoe family reunion.

Snowbird

On Pioneer Day this year Verite held a family fun day at Snowbird for all of their employees and their families. It was a total blast! We got there around 11am and got our wristbands for the day. The boys jumped on the bungee trampolines first while I took Talia on the Mountain Coaster. She was just barely big enough. Thank goodness she was because it was her favorite thing. She rode it 7 or 8 time throughout the day. After our first couple of activities we met up with the rest of the Verite group for a catered lunch on the patio. It was fun to visit with everyone and the lunch was delicious.

After we ate we headed off to play some more. I ended up hanging out with grouchy, tired Beckett for awhile. He had some down time in the stroller and we went inside to cool off for a bit. Luckily one of Ian's co-workers volunteered to take Talia on the Mountain Coaster a couple of times while I was with Beck. Thanks Courtney!

We took advantage of the Verite photobooth before it was closed, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing. We took the tram up the mountain and checked out the view. Talia liked the tram a lot. Weston didn't love it because it was so high up, but he was a good sport. Beckett was pretty fascinated by the ride and was happy to finally be included in something. He was too little to do most of the activities.

After the tram we did the Mountain Flyer which is a kind of fast zipline ride. Super fun! No one ended up doing the actual Alpine Slide. Oops. The boys did more bungee tramp jumping while Tal and I went on the Coaster a few more times. Beckett was content to be in his stroller and watch the very brave chipmunks skittering around.

Ian took Weston to go on the Mountain Flyer again while I watched the other kids on the bounce houses. By this time the crowd was starting to thin out so the kids had the bounce houses almost to themselves. Beckett finally got brave enough to get in and jump and even climbed up and did the slides by himself! He was so proud of himself and had so much fun!

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day. We headed home around 5pm. I was tired and sore and headachy when we got home, but the boys really wanted to go to our neighbor's for Cul De Sac of Fire. Ian volunteered to take them down there, which was so nice. They had fun doing sparklers and watching the fireworks. I took meds and went to bed. It was a very good day! Thank you Verite!